Medicare fraud costs American taxpayers billions of dollars each year. Last year Medicare removed Social Security numbers from Medicare ID cards and issued new Identification numbers to all beneficiaries as a way of reducing the amount of fraud. (See my prior article: Social Security Numbers to be Removed from Medicare ID Cards). According to CMS […]
Medicare: There’s an App for that!
In today’s day and age, we have a world of knowledge at our finger tips. Smartphones have allowed various industries to expand beyond what anyone could have ever imagined, and Medicare is no different. According to research, 79% of Americans between the ages of 50 and 64 as well as 53% of Americans over the […]
New Medicare Advantage Plan Benefits Have Limited Availability
[The following article was published by Kaiser Health News and is republished here with its permission. Kaiser Health News is a nonprofit news service covering health issues. It is an editorially independent program of the Kaiser Family Foundation, which is not affiliated with Kaiser Permanente.] Trumpeted New Medicare Advantage Benefits Will Be Hard For Seniors To […]
My mother has Medicare. Won’t that take care of the nursing home bills?
Medicare is the federal health insurance program for people who are 65 or older and certain younger people with disabilities or specific diseases. Payments by Medicare for nursing home care, if any, are only provided on a limited basis, and not for long-term needs. There are many limitations. For example, Medicare requires a qualifying in-patient […]
Medicare Annual Limits on Therapy Lifted
Last month Congress approved the federal budget agreement and it was signed by the President on February 9th. One of the provisions should help the health of the 59 million Americans who have Medicare. Under the budget agreement, annual caps are removed on the amount Medicare pays for physical, occupational or speech-language therapy. The medical […]
New Medicare Cards are Coming – be Careful
Your Medicare card is being replaced. For many seniors their red white and blue Medicare card is one of their most important possessions. The card lists your name and related Social Security Number and shows the dates you became eligible for health overage under Medicare Parts A and B. The card is your entry ticket […]
Going Home from the Hospital: The Fast Appeal
You are notified that you will be discharged from the hospital this afternoon. But you are concerned that your discharge is taking place too soon. You think you need additional in-patient care in the hospital. What can you do? Can you stop your scheduled discharge? Hospital discharges don’t always take place at the ideal time. […]